Zanica

Zanica first appears as Vettianica in the will of Taidone, dated 774, which mentions a basilica dedicated to Saint Ambrose in the village. The name is traced back to Vettius, the Roman patrician credited with the Prata Vettianica, and an inscription found in nearby Grassobbio naming a Vettia is offered in support. From there the form shifts century by century — Veczaneca, Veczanega, Vecianica, Vesanica, Vezanica — down to the Zanga of the late sixteenth century, still heard in the dialect Sanga; Zanica takes hold only in 1776.

In the villa Domenico Tasso had built here, Torquato Tasso found shelter just after leaving the prison in Ferrara, and finished polishing his Torrismondo; frescoes of scenes from the Gerusalemme liberata recall the stay. Zanica is also held to be the home of Gioppino, the best known mask of Bergamo, and the birthplace of Felice Moretti, the organist and composer known as Padre Davide da Bergamo, remembered by a plaque on the house. The shield is parted: on one side the battlemented tower of the Padergnone castle, on the other a badger beneath the sun.